Aliens Suck!!!

[Deleted]

Jun 26, 2012 22:46:21 GMT -5 captmo said:

Thanks for all the input fellas. Based on all I've read it sounds like I just need to man-up. My only problem with Starfixer's advice is if you have a ship with a giant hull, loaded with crew, weapons and fuel... How do you make any money? ...or are you suggesting to build a giant bank first, then get a military ship and kill every thing you can find? I think that's what you're driving at. I've never really played that way. It's all about the money for me. Most of the fights I get into is against people trying to rob me. I am going to try the indiscriminate mass murderer route though. It's probably fun too.

Like my advice said, after the upgrades you should get weapons to the point where you still have room for 60 water fuel and or luxury rations. Ths means you can stil do contracts that are say 50AU away. Yu just might need to make a stop or two. You can still participate in spy conflicts and make 50 records before selling, or blockade a faction 50 times in a solar war. You just can't be a trader (explorer merchant smuggler etc) and make money trading goods. Try bounter hunter, military officer, zealot, or even spy. I make plenty of money after the proccess I described, and I didn't have to be a giant angel of death obliterating anything that moves to make 2 milion before some punk rammed me 20 times and I had to use an escape shuttle.

[Cory Trese]

There are a lot of really good posts on this forum ... long detailed ones about stradegy

[Deleted]

The only downside to my strategy is you can't use it in the beginning of the game. You won't be able to use it until you hit something like level 25 and you got a million in the bank (which shouldn't be hard by level 25). So if you run into aliens before youre able to use my strategy, try the following:
1. If it seems you can win, fight. Otherwise try to escape.
2. If it becomes clear you can't escape, try to fight. Who knows? You might win
3. If it becomes clearly obvious your not going to win and you have an escape shuttle, surrender. You can try escaping/ramming, but once boarded its very hard to escape. And you won't kill them by ramming if you can't defeat them by boarding.
Alwayes have an escape shuttle on you. This way you can alwayes surrender and get out in one piece. Same thing with bumping into any other hostile force that you can't win against (Ex: level 120 bounty for a faction that you have a -70 rep with)

[captmo]

Started new captain on insane yesterday. He's level 18 right now. Trying to get some more loot together, and am going to work Starfixer's plan straight away. Wish me luck.

[phantombudgie]

I don't like the way sufficiently high pilot skill can allow an enemy (especially aliens) to close on you even if you have a massive advantage in engines/hull ratio. Outmaneuvering my weapons fire I can get. But you can't magic extra thrust...?

If my ship is 10x faster than yours and I fly away from you in a straight line, no amount of pilot skill will allow you to catch me in open space. Maybe it should only apply in orbit/nebulas etc.

[shallowthought]

Assuming all engines are equal. For example, it is possible to run a nuclear sub at 115% rated power for short periods of time, assuming your engineers are good enough (source: war movies). If the pilot skill determines how far you can push the engines without them blowing up it would make sense.

[Deleted]

Alein ships have special powers. For example, I believe having artifcacts when fighting aliens can sometimes be used against you. One of these "powers" the aliens have is being able to easily close range on you (depending on the ship) unless you have a fast/quick ship and have a higher level or if you have a higher level period. This is why most of the time if you ever try torping or gunning aliens, they will countinue closing range on you and be unaffected. Again, I suggest getting the harbinger carrier (the blue ship that has 50 hull, in case I'm misspelling it) because ts the ony ship with over 50 hull AND a reasonable size of hold and crew. Then get cargo hold +20%, battship arcitecture, escape shuttle, advanced sail system, and hyperion upgrades. Youl have over 200 crew, and eough storage to hold 111, 121, or 131 weapons (depending on your level you will consume les water fuel allowing you to store more weapons because les water fuel will be needed to be stored)

[shallowthought]

Well, just ran into two alien ships in quick succession. First was level 31, closed in fast. I rammed twice, which seemed to damage it enough that I could maintain max range and finish it off with 9 torps. Second one was level 632 space hive, it ran instantly. I am currently level 19. The first alien was a challenge but doable, but what's the point in the space hive? How are you meant to do anything to something over 33 times your current level?

Edit: current ship is a Raptor Class with extended gun decks, escape shuttle, water fuel tank, titan components and sail command probe.

[shallowthought]

@starfixer: What difficulty level are you playing at? I bought an obliterater cruiser (40 hull, 44 sails and engines, 115 crew) at level 20 to see what the fuel consumption would be like on impossible - it's 3.139/1.263 red/green. That's basically unusable, with a full hold of water fuel range is only 38/93, and that'll be a lot worse once a couple of sails get taken out. On impossible, you won't be able to fly something like that until about level 50.

[Deleted]

Jun 27, 2012 18:17:59 GMT -5 shallowthought said:

@starfixer: What difficulty level are you playing at? I bought an obliterater cruiser (40 hull, 44 sails and engines, 115 crew) at level 20 to see what the fuel consumption would be like on impossible - it's 3.139/1.263 red/green. That's basically unusable, with a full hold of water fuel range is only 38/93, and that'll be a lot worse once a couple of sails get taken out. On impossible, you won't be able to fly something like that until about level 50.

I'm on dfficulty insane/impossible. 60 water fuel on that consumtion outa get you 30 AU before you need to make a stop. Its not unusable at all, you just need to make 1 or 2 stops and it will be easy to do contracts and participate in conflicts. You just can't be a trader. Plus after getting advanced sail upgrade your sails shuld jump to over 50.
Oh and if you have under 180 crew like that, best to get battleship upgrade enstad of water fuel tank beceause 120 crew isn't enough for boardng, especially with 44 engines. Also you don't need to be lv 50, lv25 or lv30 is fine.

[Deleted]

Jun 27, 2012 17:51:14 GMT -5 shallowthought said:

Well, just ran into two alien ships in quick succession. First was level 31, closed in fast. I rammed twice, which seemed to damage it enough that I could maintain max range and finish it off with 9 torps. Second one was level 632 space hive, it ran instantly. I am currently level 19. The first alien was a challenge but doable, but what's the point in the space hive? How are you meant to do anything to something over 33 times your current level?

Depends on the ship. Some alien ships make it impossible to change range, especially when they have a higher level than you like that.
Space hives cannot be fought when they have a high level like that. That's why space hives run and not attack, because some have a rediculous high level. Its when space hives don't have a rediculously high level that its possible to catch up to them and kill them. They carry a lot of good stuff, so after defeating them you can fill your hold up with all electronics/artifacts and make a good 200 g

[shallowthought]

Jun 27, 2012 19:14:17 GMT -5 @starfixer said:

Oh and if you have under 180 crew like that, best to get battleship upgrade enstad of water fuel tank beceause 120 crew isn't enough for boardng, especially with 44 engines. Also you don't need to be lv 50, lv25 or lv30 is fine.

True, if I was going after aliens on a regular basis. I generally play as a general contractor, doing whatever's available, and the water fuel tank's pretty much required for that - I've had contracts expire in the past due to refuelling and still occasionally run out of fuel as it is. With a bounty hunter + military officer the raptor class is pretty good in combat - I generally do most of my damage with torps/guns, and only use boarding against higher level captains if they start closing range on me. Boarding should be a lot more effective if you shoot into their decks the turn before, kills crew and lowers morale. Also, your tactics skill isn't going to be high enough to properly control 200 crew at that stage in the game (lv 20 or so)

[Deleted]

Once I'm past lv40 boarding first wins wth only 20 casualties on my part. I had no need to shoot at them first, and even if I tried they normally dodge it. Also my contracts normally don't expire when I have a big ship, and I've had to go more than 40AU away. I guess maybe if you only had 40 waer fuel, but with 60 water fuel andthe contract still expires... that's never happened to me. Maybe your holdIisn't big enough. A haringber (or whatever its called) carier with the cargo hold 20%makes the hold over 180. That gives you plenty of room for water fuel AND weapons, and once your at lv30 your contracts should not be expiring.

[shallowthought]

Tried your strategy, got a harbringer carrier (the 50 hull one) with your suggested upgrades. Was immediately screwed over by a steel song military ship about twice my level and had to surrender, spent time in prison resulting in 5 expired contracts. Think I'll stick to smaller ships in future - might still be beaten occasionally but its a lot easier to run in a fast/quick ship.

[Deleted]

Jun 28, 2012 17:44:06 GMT -5 shallowthought said:

Tried your strategy, got a harbringer carrier (the 50 hull one) with your suggested upgrades. Was immediately screwed over by a steel song military ship about twice my level and had to surrender, spent time in prison resulting in 5 expired contracts. Think I'll stick to smaller ships in future - might still be beaten occasionally but its a lot easier to run in a fast/quick ship.

How many weapons were you carrying?